Production and issuance of identification and financial documents, such as financial (e.g. credit and debit) cards, drivers' licenses, national identification cards, and other like cards, as well as passports and the like, must be done in a highly secure manner in order to ensure the integrity and distribution of the issued documents. The security concerns surrounding the issuance of these types of documents includes the prevention of document forgeries and duplications, issuance of a document to a person other than for whom the document was created, and issuance to unauthorized persons such as criminals.
These types of documents are typically produced and issued by local or federal governmental authorities, by business entities that are in the business of producing such documents, and by institutional and other entities that have need for such documents and that have purchased the necessary equipment to produce such documents. Regardless of who produces the documents, there is a need to guard against fraudulently produced documents.
One way to control the production of unauthorized and fraudulent identification and financial documents is by controlling access to the document production equipment and software necessary to operate the equipment. However, when the document production equipment and/or software is stolen, or when one fraudulently obtains access to the production equipment, unauthorized documents may be able to be produced.
However, improvements in controlling the production of unauthorized identification and financial documents are still needed.